Allaire’s comments came amid heated debate over stablecoin yields, including in discussions over the US CLARITY Act, which aims to establish a federal market structure framework for digital assets.
Allaire points to money market funds as a historical parallel
Allaire pointed to government money market funds as a historical parallel, noting they faced similar warnings about draining bank deposits.
Yet it has been “around $11 trillion of dollar money market funds that grew in various different circumstances,” Allaire said, adding that this has not stopped lending.
Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire at the WEF panel on Thursday. Source: WEF
“Meanwhile, lending is already shifting away from banks toward private credit and capital markets. In the US, much of GDP growth over multiple cycles has been funded through capital-market debt, not bank loans,” he said. “We want to build models for lending that build on top of stablecoins.”
Circle CEO says stablecoins are the only viable money for AI agents
Allaire also highlighted artificial intelligence as a major driver of future stablecoin adoption.
He said “billions of AI agents” will need a payment system, adding that “there is no other alternative other than stablecoins to do that right now.”
Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao. Source: YZi Labs
Related: US Senate Agriculture Committee to release updated market structure bill
Similar views were echoed elsewhere at the forum. Former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said Thursday at Davos that crypto payments could be essential for AI-driven transactions.
In September, Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz predicted that AI agents will become the biggest stablecoin user “sometime in the near distant future.”
Magazine: How crypto laws changed in 2025 — and how they’ll change in 2026